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RIVERSIDE: Alvord board delays trustee areas

Alvord Unified School District Superintendent Nicolas Ferguson says the district can request a liability assessment before creating trustee areas or it can start the four-month process to draw trustee area boundaries without a liability assessment.

Alvord school board members want to hear from the community before they proceed to create trustee areas to avoid potential lawsuits under the 2001 California Voting Rights Act.

The board voted unanimously to remove an item from its agenda late Thursday night, Dec. 13, to study the creation of trustee areas.

âI would like to go out to our community and understand how the community feels about this,â board member Carolyn Wilson said before moving to remove the item from the agenda. âIâd like to speak to them and hear what they have to say.â

Alvord Unified School District covers parts of west Riverside and west Home Gardens and some of east Corona. Board members say the southern part of the district, where four of them live, is generally more affluent than the northern part of the district, where no board members currently live. Wilson is the only board member who lives in Corona.

Districts across Riverside County and the state have changed to trustee areas. Some districts have been threatened with lawsuits under the California Voting Rights Act. Under that law, districts with at-large elections can be sued if black or Hispanic voters have not been represented by the candidates of their choice in past elections. Districts or cities served with such a suit are liable for plaintiff's legal fees and have no defense if they have at-large elections, Inland school district officials have said.

Others questioned the effects of the law as well as the expense, estimated to total $45,000 or a potential law suit that could cost millions.

Art Kaspereen, who was elected board president Thursday night, said that when he was a counselor at the districtâs alternative high school, he worked with students from all over the district and of all races. He said he has a problem with a law that says he can only represent students from a certain part of the district or some schools.

Board member Ben Johnson, who is black, expressed similar concerns but with more emotion, his voice cracking.

âCost isnât the biggest issue,â Johnson said. âItâs not 1962, and to say someone canât represent someone (of another race) is even more offensive to me.â

Wilson noted that she and other board members attend events on every campus, not just the ones their own children attended. Johnson said the current board members would continue to represent all students, not just the schools in their own trustee areas. But in 25 years, he said heâs concerned that future board members will primarily concentrate on the schools in their own trustee areas.

In April, the board heard consultant and attorney David Soldani outline steps to create trustee areas. Typically, districts have a liability assessment first, to gauge how likely they are to be sued. The assessment can take four to six weeks and cost up to $20,000. Then they begin the process of drawing districts, a four-month process that can cost up to $25,000.

Last spring, Wilson suggested the board could have its own attorneys assess liability for far less money but the issue has not returned to the boardâs agenda for action.

The law notes that at times, at-large elections disenfranchise Latino voters at the local level because Latino candidates often cannot win across a whole city or district. Dividing districts into smaller areas allows Latino or other minority communities to elect a representative from their own neighborhoods, proponents say.

Riverside Unified School District abandoned its at-large elections June 10 and agreed on a map of trustee area boundaries in September. Lake Elsinore Unified and the Perris Union High School District have followed suit. Romoland and Menifee school districts are in the process of changing to trustee areas.

The Riverside Community College District divided itself into trustee areas in March and elected two board members in November by trustee areas. Its other three board members, who live in separate districts, will be up for re-election in two years. A Latina incumbent from Riverside was re-elected and a white man from Corona was elected. He is the first white man or Corona resident on the board in several years.

Follow Dayna Straehley on Twitter: @dstraehley_PE and watch for her posts on the Inland Schools blog: http://blog.pe.com/schools/

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